White House Appoints APS Fellow as Neuroscience Research Coordinator

In March, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) announced that APS Fellow Philip Rubin was named as the first-ever White House coordinator on neuroscience research. In his role as Assistant Director for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences in OSTP, Rubin has taken charge of a new national initiative to stimulate neuroscience research.

“With the bipartisan encouragement of Congress, and with the encouragement and support of many other stakeholders around the nation, neuroscience is being highlighted by this Administration and by OSTP as an area of significant importance,” Rubin said at a recent meeting of the Institute of Medicine’s Forum on Neuroscience in Washington, D.C.

Currently, Rubin is focusing on the role that the U.S. government will play in making the research initiative both sustainable and significant. Already, he and his team have begun the formal process of drafting a charter for a new interagency working group on neuroscience research funding that will be run by the National Science and Technology Council.

Rubin will also serve as a Senior Advisor in the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences directorate at the National Science Foundation. Before his appointment, he was Chief Executive Officer at Haskins Laboratories and an adjunct professor in the Department of Surgery at the Yale University of Medicine, where he is best known for his research on articulatory synthesis. Rubin will be taking a break from his previous activities to dedicate himself to this initiative.

“We want to help identify, promote, and accelerate progress in those areas, ideas, and discoveries that show the greatest promise for making significant advances,” he said.